Connect with us

Maine

Maine Catholics celebrate installment of 13th bishop of Portland

Published

on

Maine Catholics celebrate installment of 13th bishop of Portland


Bishop James Thomas Ruggieri carries the pastoral staff after his ordination and installation as the 13th Bishop of Portland. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Incense wafted through the air of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, silent as dozens of priests, bishops and other dignitaries began their slow procession through the sanctuary.

Among them was Bishop James Thomas Ruggieri, who bowed his head and lifted his hands to greet the hundreds of faithful Catholics who traveled to Portland on Tuesday to celebrate his ordination and installment as the 13th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Jessica Ciszewski said she drove nearly five hours to from New Sweden, a small town in Aroostook County, with two of her children for what she called a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend the event. She said the day felt like a celebration for the whole diocese.

Advertisement

“It’s wonderful. The chant from the choir, the fellowship — I found myself almost moved to tears,” she said. “It’s like you’re being wrapped in joy.”

Ruggieri, 56, who comes to Maine from the Diocese of Providence, will now lead the more than 275,000 Catholics across the state.

David O’Brien and his wife, Linda, who attend church in the Holy Spirit Parish in Kennebunk, said they were grateful to attend the ceremony.

“It’s an important moment for the diocese and something I don’t expect I’ll see again,” he said. “You see the church in all of its glory and pageantry and magnificence.”

A HOLY TRADITION

Advertisement

The two-hour ceremony of tradition and pageantry was both solemn and celebratory. The cathedral was filled to its 1,000-person capacity long before the procession began.

A woman adjusts a veil as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception fills before the ordination and installation of James Thomas Ruggieri as the 13th Bishop of Portland. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

After Cardinal Christophe Pierre, an apostolic nuncio to the U.S., read the official mandate from Pope Francis calling Ruggieri to ordination as bishop, Ruggieri held the document above his head and walked slowly through the church showing it to the congregation.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston led Ruggieri through the ancient custom of questioning the bishop-elect about his resolve to fulfill the responsibilities of the episcopal ministry.

Ruggieri then lay prostrate on the floor in a sign of humility as the congregation prayed for him and the church.

Advertisement

Those in attendance watched quietly — occasionally raising cellphones to capture quick photos — as archbishops and bishops lay their hands on Ruggieri in prayer, anointed his head with chrism and presented him with the Book of the Gospels. Ruggieri was also presented with his episcopal ring, miter and a pastoral staff that once belonged to David William Bacon, the first bishop of Portland.

After Ruggieri was led to the thrown-like chair behind the altar, marking his official installation as bishop, the congregation stood and applauded.

Bishop James Thomas Ruggieri leads Communion after his ordination and installation as the 13th Bishop of Portland. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

In his remarks at the end of the Mass, Ruggieri expressed his gratitude to the pope, archbishop and other bishops and priests who advised and supported him. He also acknowledged his mother and brothers, who came to Maine for his installation, before sharing a story about a bishop who met Mother Teresa.

“She said, ‘Bishop, don’t get in God’s way,’” Ruggieri said. “I take those words to heart.”

Advertisement

Jeanne Marie Leo said she came to Portland from Mount Desert Island with her husband, Anthony, and their four young children for the Mass. As lay Missionaries of Charity, they thought it was great that Ruggieri referenced Mother Teresa.

“It’s glorious to be here, especially with our kids,” she said. Ruggieri “is probably going to be confirming our kids and his episcopacy is going to shape the diocese my children grow up in. It’s a historic day.”

‘A LABOR OV LOVE’

Ruggieri had served as pastor at St. Patrick’s and St. Michael’s parishes in Rhode Island, where grew up and was ordained as a priest in 1995.

With help from parishioners and other supporters, Ruggieri founded St. Patrick Academy, a Catholic high school that allows families to pay what they can afford and 20% of students are first-generation immigrants, according to the academy.

Advertisement

When he was announced as the next bishop in February, Ruggieri said that he loves Hispanic ministry and working in a parish with immigrants from many countries, including Burundi and Rwanda. That experience has prepared him to work with immigrants who attend Catholic churches in Maine, he said.

Sister Anna of the Sisters of the Curé in Stockton Springs takes a picture of Bishop James Thomas Ruggieri before his ordination on Tuesday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Cardinal O’Malley paused early in the ceremony to thank outgoing Bishop Robert Deeley, wh0 submitted his resignation letter in 2022 at age 75, but stayed on until Ruggieri was chosen as his successor.

“I know how hard he has worked,” he said. “It was so obvious to all of us it was a labor of love.”

Deeley, who was appointed by Pope Francis in December 2013, will continue to reside in Maine as Bishop Emeritus. He led the diocese through ongoing lawsuits alleging the institution is responsible for dozens of cases of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests and other diocesan employees that often predated Deeley’s tenure.

Advertisement


Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

« Previous

Advertisement
United Methodists begin to reverse longstanding anti-LGBTQ policies



Source link

Advertisement

Maine

This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage

Published

on

This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage


A waterfront home with open ocean views on the coast of Maine came to market Tuesday asking $4 million. 

Built in 1978, the three-bedroom cottage is at the southern point of Cape Elizabeth, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. The 1.1-acre property on Sunny Bank Road features 200 feet of south-facing water frontage on the wide open Atlantic. 

It is bordered by a rocky sea wall that’s about 28 feet high, according to listing agent Sam Michaud Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty

“The views are like a Monet painting,” he said via email. “The water sparkles and the waves are endless.”

Advertisement

MORE: Laid-Back Costa Rica Is Getting a $7 Million Mega-Penthouse

The 3,364-square-foot home was built in classic New England style, with shingle siding, a single sloped roofline and large windows—complemented by white-washed walls, exposed-beam ceilings and wide-plank flooring on the interiors. 

Advertisement – Scroll to Continue

The main common area features cathedral ceilings with a step-down between the living and dining room, and a partial wall divides the dining room from the kitchen. There is also a wood-paneled family room off the kitchen, a gym and a covered porch. 

The sellers purchased the property in 2010 for $1.562 million, according to property records accessed through PropertyShark. They could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Advertisement

“I have received quite a few inquiries since hitting the market two days ago,” Michaud said. “Buyers understand that this is a golden opportunity to own over an acre with 200 feet of bold oceanfront in Cape Elizabeth.”

MORE: Iranian Strikes on Dubai Put the City’s Roaring Real Estate Market to the Test

There are currently just seven three-bedroom homes available for sale in Cape Elizabeth and fewer than five waterfront properties, according to Sotheby’s and Zillow data. It is also the most expensive listing in the town, with another waterfront property on a tiny lot just south of Portland coming in a close second, according to Zillow. 

Michaud sold the former Cape Elizabeth home of Bette Davis this past summer for $13.4 million, the priciest sale on the cape in at least a decade—and even those views can’t compare. They’re “just magical,” he said. 



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Maine

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

Published

on

NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion


Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.

In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.

As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.

The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.

Advertisement

Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.

Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”

After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.

Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.

In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.

Advertisement

First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.

Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.

Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.

Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.

If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Maine

Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition

Published

on

Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition


For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.

That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.

So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.

It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.

Advertisement

But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.

Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine

Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.

Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.

Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.

There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.

Advertisement

Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter

While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.

Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.

All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.

TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Things to do in Portland, Maine

Looking for fun things to do in Portland, ME? Here is what the reviewers on TripAdvisor say are the 10 best attractions.

This list was updated in March of 2026

Advertisement

Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka

Top 15 of The Most Powerful People in Maine

Ever wonder who the most powerful players are in Maine? I’ve got a list!

Gallery Credit: Getty Images





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending